6th District Lexington Councilman Johnny Jeffcoat, left.  Balok of the First Federation, right. Both are alien to small government.

It seems that Johnny Jeffcoat, one of the nine so-called "Republicans" on the Lexington County Council, has a problem with being a Republican.  Like his good friend, Jake Knotts, Johnny Jeffcoat doesn't have a problem endorsing a Democrat.  Jeffcoat, who makes a habit of not attending the monthly Lexington County GOP meetings, has obvious problems with more conservative members of his own party--which in terms of tax and spending, is just about everyone else.

At a recent political event in Lexington County, Deedee Vaughters, GOP candidate for Senate district 26 who is running in the GOP primary June 12th in the hopes of facing Democrat Nikki Setzler in November, was told point blank by Johnny Jeffcoat that he will be supporting 36-year incumbent Democrat Nikki Setzler instead of the GOP nominee.

Vaughters responded, asking him, "You do realize that Setzler is a Democrat, don't you?"

Jeffcoat responded, "Yes, but he's a good friend of mine."

Well, that makes it all just fine and freakin' dandy, don't it?  Forget principles, if you've got a good ol' boy buddy, you'll endorse him, eh?  We, the people, have been looking to beat big spender Setzler for decades and Jeffcoat says this?

Jeffcoat ought to, like Jake Knotts and about 80% of the elected Republican officials in this state, confess of their sins and (re-)join the Democrat Party.  If you're going to tax and spend like a Democrat, at least be honest with yourself and everyone else and be an official member the Democrat Party!

So, the first time we get a really great candidate to run against Nikki Setzler, it turns out that the liberal, big spending good ol' boys in the GOP like Johnny Jeffcoat don't want a real fiscal conservative who will fight for what are supposed to be the conservative values of the Republican Party.  It just figures, doesn't it?

Johnny Jeffcoat has consistently voted for higher taxes, more regulations, and believes that such is necessary for quality of life in the "expanding suburbs."  Yeah, maybe if you want to turn the entire county in to a homeowners' association.  Oh, yeah!  They've already tried that once and Jeffcoat and his buddies on the council are promising to bring the "property police" proposal back up very soon after the election.

In reality, when a county grows, the increasing number of residents automatically increases the amount of money raised from taxes.  Jeffcoat really wants more taxes per capita so that he can buy more votes and hand out more favors to his cronies such as the $8 million dollars he got from increasing our electric bills to build another industrial park so that he can make more deals to enrich himself--on our dime.  He's a crook who belongs in prison not on county council.

And the man uses us and county property to promote himself.  He named the walkway across the dam after himself.  Yet another "living memorial" like the "Jake Knotts' Bridge."  What is with these arrogant, narcissistic pigs wallowing in our tax money and then spending it to glorify and promote themselves?

The truth is that they have absolutely no shame.  If you've ever seen Jeffcoat in person, you can tell from the expression on his face that he holds the rest of us in great disdain.  He always seems to regard his constituents with an expression that looks as though he's smelling some very disgusting odor.  He sets himself above the rest of us and feels entitled to do whatever he can get away with in his spending our money on himself and his cronies.  He's already got lots of other tax increases and corporate welfare giveaways planned for his next term.  The county's spending, no matter how much the citizens of Lexington are hurting, will never decrease if Jeffcoat has a say in the matter.

Common sense tells us that keeping government as small and severely restricted as possible means less spending and less taxation leading to more business development and greater prosperity and self-sufficiency for all the citizens.  However, Jeffcoat prances around shaking hands and apparently taking bribes as he pretends to create jobs with his corporate giveaway schemes.  In reality, he's got his hand out for under-the-table deals and campaign contributions.

Jeffcoat has his own insurance business but apparently he is so used to the government dole that he's employed by the Town of Lexington--part of which is in his council district making it a very obvious conflict of interest.  That is a lawsuit just waiting to happen.  He is paid over $70,000 a year to "promote" the Town of Lexington in what is obviously a job magically created as a political payoff to him by his cronies.  In reality, Jeffcoat does very little to nothing in that job.

Jeffcoat also makes $17,000 as a county councilman.  He's been suckling hard at the government teat--at great expense to taxpayers--for some time now.  He should be forced to resign from one or the other.  It is a horrible thing to realize but once all  his expensive votes are added up, it'd be cheaper to pay him $70,000 to NOT be on the county council.

An even stranger place Jeffcoat and the council have been wasting our money is spending $100,000 on Columbia's wretched bus system.  How in the world does it make sense to spend OUR Lexington tax money on the buses in COLUMBIA?  And that's not all.  They regularly send money to the "Edventure," the Riverbanks Zoo, and other Richland county based institutions.  The literature at council meetings has lobbyist-type promotional material for these out-of-county institutions.  One can only assume that the lobbyists come and illegally give money to venal councilmen like Jeffcoat so that they will in turn vote to send our money out of county because no one with any sense or with a halfway working moral compass would do such a thing.

It's time for the farce that is Johnny Jeffcoat to end--and end badly.  He is the last person on this planet who should be in charge of spending our tax dollars.  He needs to change his suit and tie for an orange prison suit and join the rest of the the criminals in the state penitentiary system.

On the other hand, we've got a great friend to the taxpayer in Cory Norris.  I've known Cory Norris for several years and know he is principled and willing to make the tough decisions that will shrink our government by first getting rid of the tremendous amount of waste, fraud, and abuse in the system here.

Things have gone unchecked for far too long.  Cory will be our whistleblower on the county council.  The people will finally know what is really going on.  Cory will reduce government size by getting rid of property police type regulations such as the Landscape and Open Space Ordinance and its enforcement agencies.  Cory realizes that competition leads to beautification and that a county reflects the quality of the people in it from the citizens who live there and cannot be micromanaged or directed from the top down without stomping all over their individual liberties.  And, after all, we live in America, not some socialist commune.

Cory Norris will, more than anything, do what you and I would do if we were to get on the council.  He will stop the insanity and the corruption by bringing the citizens' focus back on their governance and work to break the mechanisms of institutionalized corruption there.  If you want to find out more, please check out his website and contact him personally: http://norrisforcouncil.com/